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Biology

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From Publishers Weekly: "Is genetically engineered Golden Rice (enriched with vitamin A) a dangerous "Frankenfood" or a safe, nutritionally enhanced food that could fill a major vitamin deficiency in the Third World? Fedoroff, a molecular biologist and member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and science writer Brown (A Good Horse Has No Color) argue forcefully for the latter view."

Glausiusz says she and Volker first came to know one another as a result of the article "Dining on the Fly" that appeared in Discover magazine (Feb. 1998). Volker had sent the magazine an extraordinary set of never-before-published electron micrographs that showed various insects in the act of eating one another. "The then editor of Discover, Marc Zabludoff, liked the pictures so much that he decided to print them and asked me to write the accompanying text. I did so, and found the experience of working with Volker a highly rewarding one.

Reviewers wrote of this college biology textbook: "The writing style continues to be outstanding in every way ... [It] reads more like an interesting novel than a typical science text." "This book marks a significant departure from traditional texts ... The inclusion of information about difficulty in the personal lives of scientists and in getting their ideas accepted ... exposes the warts and weaknesses of reality in our discipline"

Watson, of course, is one of the most famous contemporary scientists. Known not only for his role in the discovery of the DNA double helix and his leadership of the Human Genome Project and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, but also for his outspokenness. This book of 43 essays has been published to celebrate Watson's 35 years at Cold Spring Harbor.

From Hindu mythology to Aztec sacrifices, butterflies have served as a metaphor for resurrection and transformation. Even during World War II, children in a Polish death camp scratched hundreds of butterflies onto the walls of their barracks. But as Sharman Apt Russell, a teacher of writing at Western New Mexico University and at Antioch University in Los Angeles, writes in her book, butterflies are above all objects of obsession.

From Book News, Inc.: "Olson, a science journalist in the US, has undertaken the ambitious task of describing and defining the history of genetic ancestry worldwide, concluding that, though our awareness is always drawn to the differences, in fact humans are all related."

Surviving almost unmolested for 300 million years, the horseshoe crab is now the object of an intense legal and ethical struggle involving marine biologists, environmentalists, U.S. government officials, biotechnologists, and international corporations. The source of this friction is the discovery 25 years ago that horseshoe crab blood provides the basis for the most reliable test for the deadly and ubiquitous gram-negative bacteria.

Author: William SargentPublisher: University Press of New EnglandCategory:Biology

Witkowski, co-author with Jim Watson of the textbook Recombinant DNA, helped Watson with this book, published to coincide with this year's 50th anniversary of the discovery of the DNA double helix. The book is loosely associated with a series of television programs Watson recorded to be shown on PBS here and Channel 4 in the UK.

James Watson, one of the men responsible for what many consider the greatest scientific achievement of our time has, until now, blocked would-be biographers with his own memoirs — The Double Helix and Genes, Girls, and Gamow. Victor McElheny — who worked with Watson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for four years and who has known him for 40 years — has written a book that sheds light on this complicated, mercurial man.

The book is a collection of unusual, dramatic, and revealing writings about the unseen world of insects, ranging from the Bible to Darwin and from Harvard's E.O. Wilson to Wired magazine founder Kevin Kelly. Whether scientific, poetic, or funny, each piece helps the reader discover the hidden lives of these much-misunderstood creatures.

If you are an NASW member and wish to have your book listed here, first go to Amazon.com and ensure that your book is available there. Then send e-mail to the NASW cybrarian with ALL of the following information: the book's 10-digit ISBN number, title, publisher, author's name, and a two- or three-sentence description and suggested category. Send announcements of new books by members to Lynne Lamberg, NASW book editor, for inclusion in the Advance Copy column online and in ScienceWriters.Submission guidelines.